Author: Cor Nouws

How to use and manage Basic and VBA compatible macros in Collabora Online

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The release of Collabora Online 6.4.7  and CODE 6.4.7 introduced the possibility to run macros in Online!

Configuration settings in loolwsd.xml: enabling and setting the security level

By default, execution of macros is completely disabled. The administrators can enable that in the security node of the loolwsd.xml configuration file.

<enable_macros_execution desc="..." type="bool" default="false">false</enable_macros_execution>

Once enabled, the administrator can decide which security level should be used for the macro execution. Currently there are two levels:

  • 0 (Low, not recommended) All macros will be executed without confirmation.
  • 1 (Medium, the default) Confirmation required before executing macros from untrusted sources.

<macro_security_level desc="..." type="int" default="1">1</macro_security_level>

Sources for Macros

Macros can be either embedded in the documents, or can be installed on the server. When opening a document with macros, in the security level “1” (Medium), the users will always see the following dialog, and will have to confirm they understand the risk.

Limitations for Macros in Collabora Online

Due to the limitations of editing the documents online, and due to the strict security design of Collabora Online, running macros have several limitation limitations. Following list of examples is not exhaustive, if you find a case that is not working for you, please let us know.

It is not possible to:

  1. Access Database sources, or open and access data as Database source.
  2. Use XForms, Forms, Controls, click buttons.
  3. Access other documents, or open external documents.
  4. Create new document from template.
  5. Mail Merge, or merge all documents in a directory.
  6. Call an external program.
  7. Use the Shell command.
  8. Extract a Zip File.
  9. Get and set the current directory.
  10. Connect to a remote OOo server using Basic.
  11. Create a toolbar for a component type.
  12. Toggle the design mode, or access the toolbars in any way.

Find out more about macros and all the other new features in our Collabora Online 6.4.7 announcement.
 

Get your free demo

 

A wonderful FOSDEM 2021 – Collabora and the LibreOffice devroom

Cor Nouws 2 Comments

FOSDEM 2021 was virtually different. Although it is sad that there was no opportunity to meet in person and enjoy the flair of Brussels this year, the largest European Open-Source conference was still a wonderful experience. Thank you for the great organization. The presentations of the Collabora developers and the videos (as soon as they are available) can be found in this post. We look forward to meeting you in person next year at the ULB!

Is Collabora making Online Content Management come true?

Saturday, February 6th, 2021. “Collabora Online for your documents” – Michael Meeks discusses with you how we have been improving Online’s UX, features & community!

Watch the video!
Download the presentation!

Development in the Cloud can’t be easy.. can it?

Sunday, February 7th 2021. “Lowering the Barrier for New Developers -Developing in the cloud via GitPod”: Listen to Muhammet Kara, what does he know about “Lowering the Barrier for New Developers”?

Watch the video!
Download the presentation!

Could LibreOffice speak up, would it love the cloud?

Sunday, February 7th 2021. “How Collabora Online development improves LibreOffice”: Long time – we could even say veteran – LibreOffice and Online developer Jan “Kendy” Holešovský, is a real LibreOffice listener. 😉 Listen to him telling “How Collabora Online development improves LibreOffice”!

Watch the video!
Download the presentation!

Inspector X – show your objects!

Sunday, February 7th 2021. “Build-in “xray” like UNO object inspector”: Bringing his magnifier, Tomaž Vajngerl explains developing “Build-in “xray” like UNO object inspector” – a project kindly granted by TDF.

Watch the video!
Download the presentation!

LibreOffice trusting PDFium… and vice versa

Sunday, February 7th 2021. “Handling PDF digital signatures in LibreOffice with PDFium”: Miklos Vajna knows all you may want to know about “Handling PDF digital signatures in LibreOffice”.

Watch the video!
Download the presentation!

Making Nextcloud Hub COOL

Sunday, February 7th 2021. “Making Nextcloud Hub COOL – Hear how we implemented out-of-the-box collaboration.”: Some titles speak for themselves. What does Michael Meeks know about this?

Watch the video!
Download the presentation!

Apple slices easy bits?

Sunday, February 7th 2021. “Porting LibreOffice to macOS on Apple Silicon – Easy bits were easy, hard bits were not so hard”: Tor Lillqvist put his teeth in porting LibreOffice to macOS… Easy or hard?

Watch the video!
Download the presentation!

More great talks in the LibreOffice devroom!

Check the LibreOffice FOSDEM 2021 devroom schedule for more talks about IDE’s, productivity, interoperability, document standards, Maria DB, QA, LibreOffice in the browser, Writer fields, gerrit patches, Lightning talks.

Learn more on Online .. get your free demo!

 

About Collabora Productivity

Collabora Productivity is the driving force behind putting LibreOffice in the cloud, providing Collabora Online and a range of products and consulting to enterprise and government. Powered by the largest team of certified LibreOffice engineers in the world, it is a leading contributor to the LibreOffice codebase and community. Collabora Office for Desktop and Collabora Online provide a business-hardened office suite with long-term, multi-platform support. Collabora Productivity is a division of Collabora, the global software consultancy dedicated to providing the benefits of Open Source to the commercial world, specializing in mobile, automotive and consumer electronics industries. For more information, visit www.collaboraoffice.com or follow Collabora Office on Twitter .

Move and Copy Sheets in Collabora Online

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Moving and copying of sheets can now be done directly in spreadsheets in Collabora Online. This possibility has been added to the most recent update, version 6.4.2!

 

Use the Context Menu options or the full Dialog

  • The first new option is moving sheets to a position left or right, with the context menu of the sheets tab.

  • Most possibilities are offered by the dialog, that we know from Collabora Office on desktop too. You start it from the context menu of the sheets tab.

 

All details about Collabora Online update 6.4.2

You can read all the details about the 6.4.2 update in the Collabora Online Release Notes.

 

Working to make Online even richer in features and more powerful

Collabora Online is known for reliability and security and in close cooperation with partners, customers and community we keep extending possibilities and improving the software. The Collabora Online 6.4 announcement together with the release notes give you all details. If you are new to Collabora Online, we expect that you may be interested to test the features.. Do ask our sales team all possibilities or get a full demo version now ..

Get your free Collabora Online demo

 

About Collabora Productivity

Collabora Productivity is the driving force behind putting LibreOffice in the cloud, providing Collabora Online and a range of products and consulting to enterprise and government. Powered by the largest team of certified LibreOffice engineers in the world, it is a leading contributor to the LibreOffice codebase and community. Collabora Office for Desktop and Collabora Online provide a business-hardened office suite with long-term, multi-platform support. Collabora Productivity is a division of Collabora, the global software consultancy dedicated to providing the benefits of Open Source to the commercial world, specializing in mobile, automotive and consumer electronics industries. For more information, visit www.collaboraoffice.com or follow Collabora Office on Twitter .

 

Collabora Office 6.4 – our major release now ready for Android, iOS, and Chrome OS

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Cambridge, November 30th, 2020, 12:00 CET – We are glad to announce the new major release Collabora Office for Android and Chrome OS! This release comes with improvements from the recent major Collabora Online release 6.4, and brings a user interface that is easier and more fun to use.

Collabora Office allows you to edit documents directly on your phone or tablet, guaranteeing your privacy and putting you in full control of your data and documents. Our mobile apps are a supported part of our Collabora Office product family and come with every Collabora Office Enterprise subscription.

Collabora Office for Android and Chrome OS is feature rich, providing smooth editing, a polished user experience and lots of design goodness.

Clear and easy NotebookBar on tablets

Using Collabora Office on a tablet now gives you a NotebookBar user interface. With the introduction we are responding to the wishes of our users. They wanted more NotebookBar and less Siderbar, so we changed. Clear tabs with even more explicit feature-icons to tap on provide the same feature richness as Collabora Online in your browser.

 

User-friendly tab layout

The tabs have been redesigned especially for the use on tablets. They refrain from clashing with the iOS status bar and decrease clutter on the toolbar. For a larger view of the document, the NotebookBar can be collapsed by tapping on the tabs.

 

Convenient switch to editing for read-only documents

When a read-only document is switched in editing mode, the user gets a “save as” option, to preserve the original version of the document.

Faster, improved document handling

Other important improvements in this release are the faster loading of larger documents, and improved display of some Microsoft document elements.

Interoperability improvements become available online

Transparent text in a PowerPoint/Impress file
Gradient background in a PowerPoint/Impress slide

With the update to the new 6.4 core, also the numerous interoperability improvements to Microsoft documents arrive at mobile devices and on Chromebooks, such as gradient backgrounds in slides, semitransparent text, and better SmartArt support – all first introduced to Collabora Office 6.4 on the desktop and to Collabora Online 6.4.

Working in multiple documents and more fonts on iOS

Collabora Office 6.4 for iOS is starting to make use of “multitasking” features: it is now possible to have multiple documents open at the same time in the app. A special word of thanks to Adfinis and Nicolas Christener for their invaluable support for making this happen! Another nice win, is that “third-party” fonts, those installed by other apps, can now be selected.

 

The Dark Mode is starting …on Android

We are glad to present the first parts of Dark Mode support on Android! Some elements of the user-interface and background can be changed by choosing the dark theme in the settings. However, when inside documents, the app will currently display the classic light UI.

 

Chrome OS specific UI improvements

  • The floating action button for new documents is larger and moved up, to allow easier dealing of e.g. notifications.
  • The “create new documents” labels can now be tapped
  • Scrolling can now be done with the track pad and touch screen
  • Keyboard shortcuts for cut/copy/paste are now working

Staged releases

Starting with Collabora Office 6.4.0 for mobile, we moved to a staggered release schedule. This means that new versions are made available to users gradually. Version updates will be rolled-out to users in sequential waves, so some will see them sooner than others.

More fixes

Now it is possible to paste images copied from Chrome/Chromium browser. Also, various text area focus issues are fixed, that previously blocked writing in some situations.

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

Collabora invested huge effort and resources in the fully functional open source office suite for mobile devices, built on the support of many we appreciate to credit on this page.

We welcome your feedback and questions on the Collabora Online forum! For contributions to testing, translating and development, we welcome you on Collabora Online on GitHub.

 

Get it on Google Play
Get it on App Store

For use on F-Droid please see this information.

Info on release updates

Read detailed information on updates on Collabora Office for mobile devices on this page.

 

About Collabora Productivity

Collabora Productivity is the driving force behind putting LibreOffice in the cloud, providing Collabora Online and a range of products and consulting to enterprise and government. Powered by the largest team of certified LibreOffice engineers in the world, it is a leading contributor to the LibreOffice codebase and community. Collabora Office for Desktop and Collabora Online provide a business-hardened office suite with long-term, multi-platform support. Collabora Productivity is a division of Collabora, the global software consultancy dedicated to providing the benefits of Open Source to the commercial world, specializing in mobile, automotive and consumer electronics industries. For more information, visit www.collaboraoffice.com or follow CollaboraOffice on Twitter.

Jeci and Collabora Online announce partnership for Alfresco Community

Cor Nouws Leave a comment

Dijon, France – Cambridge, United Kingdom – November 23, 2020 – Collabora, the driving force behind creating the online LibreOffice, ‘Collabora Online’, and Jeci, an IT service company that specializes in free and open source technologies (FLOSS), are happy to announce a partnership around Collabora Online and Jeci’s Alfresco integration.

“We are excited to work with Jeci as our partner” said Michael Meeks, General Manager at Collabora Productivity. “we love their work enhancing collaboration with Alfresco, and the open source spirit of the team.”

“We are delighted to be able to offer Collabora Online as part of our services for Alfresco” said Jérémie Lesage, founder and CEO at Jeci. “With the rich editing and collaboration features in Collabora Online, we are able to create more value for our customers.”

Jeci provides various open source expertise on, among others, containers and software development, with a specialty on Alfresco Community Platform, using Docker for a quick and reproducible deployment. Jeci created an open source integration for Alfresco with Collabora Online, which was also recently updated for Alfresco version 6. Alfresco is the open, cloud-native ECM, to help manage content from anywhere, connect information with users everywhere. Integration with Collabora Online helps businesses in increasing worker productivity, securing online working, and in effectively delivering exceptional customer experiences. You can see how the integration works on Jeci’s youtube channel.

Collabora Online is the powerful LibreOffice-based online office that supports all major document-, spreadsheet- and presentation-file formats, which can be easily integrated in many infrastructures and solutions. Key features are collaborative editing and excellent office file format support. Collabora Online is excellent for enterprises that need a powerful office suite in the cloud, or on-premises, that protects their privacy and allows them to keep full control of their sensitive corporate data. Collabora Online enables Hosting and Cloud businesses to include document viewing and collaborative editing functionality into their service offerings.
Collabora Online can also be used in combination with our PC based office suites: Collabora Office, as well as natively on iOS, Android and ChromeOS. This gives organizations flexibility to choose where to run their Office workloads, without being forced to use third party servers.

For more information about this press release, please contact info@jeci.fr or sales@collaboraoffice.com.

About Collabora Productivity
Collabora Productivity created Collabora Online and therefore is the driving force behind putting LibreOffice in the cloud. Collabora provides a wide range of products, as well as consulting services for enterprises and governments. Powered by the largest team of certified LibreOffice engineers in the world, Collabora is a leading contributor to the LibreOffice codebase and community. Collabora Office for Desktop and Collabora Online provide a business-hardened office suite with long-term support. Collabora’s multi-platform policy is completed with Collabora Office for iOS and Android. Collabora Productivity is a division of Collabora, the global software consultancy dedicated to providing benefits of Open Source to the commercial world, specializing in mobile, automotive and consumer electronics industries. For more information, visit page on www.collaboraoffice.com or follow @CollaboraOffice on Twitter.

About Jeci
Jeci is an Information Technology services company that specializes in Free and Open Source technologies (FLOSS). Set near Dijon in Burgundy, Jeci mostly works remotely but also on site in France, Belgium and Switzerland. We provide turnkey ready Alfresco Community Platforms. The platforms use Docker for a quick and reproducible deployment. We also provide services around containers, kubernetes, and cloud native software development. More details on jeci.fr.